Cu0.15Ce0.85O2-y Mixed Oxide Catalyst Prepared by Co-precipitation Synthesis

The use of CeO2 and CeO2-containing materials as a component of heterogeneous industrial catalysts or as a support for transition metals is based on superior chemical and physical stability, high oxygen mobility and high oxygen vacancy concentrations, which are characteristic for the fluorite-type oxides (economically and technologically most important application is the use of ceria in the three-way automotive exhaust catalysts as a thermal stabilizer and oxygen storage medium 1 ). Various cation dopants can be introduced into the CeO2 lattice to improve the physicochemical properties of ceria; e.g., the modification of CeO2 with Cu ions leads to creation of oxygen ion vacancy around the Cu ion in the CeO2-based mixed oxide catalysts, to local structural changes and to decrease of the redox potentials of Cu species in the CeO2 matrix [2]. The CuO-CeO2 mixed oxides were reported to be highly active and selective for oxidation of carbon monoxide in excess of hydrogen [3]. It was revealed recently that activity and selectivity of two series of CuxCe1-xO2-y catalysts prepared by coprecipitation method and by sol-gel peroxide route increase with the dispersion of copper oxide phase on the cerium oxide [4]. In this work, we report on the characterization of a Cu0.15Ce0.85O2-y mixed oxide catalyst (prepared by a co-precipitation method and referred to as CuCe-1) TPR, TPO. These techniques will be demonstrated as an efficient set of tools to obtain information about the redox behavior of this solid. This information is important for designing CuO-CeO2 catalysts that can replace the expensive noble metal catalysts in a number of down-stream processes, including the production of H2-rich gas streams from fossil and renewable fuels used as a fuel for the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC).